Friday, March 25, 2011

Getting PoetryTagTime to Africa

As Janet (Wong) and I worked on our PoetryTagTime e-Book project, so many serendipitous happenings encouraged us along the way.

We were invited to join in a partnership with Worldreader.org to donate our book, PoetryTagTime, to children in Ghana and Kenya, where poetry fits well with the strong oral storytelling tradition in those countries. As a former Fulbright scholar in Zimbabwe, I was so pleased to be able to add to the body of literature available to children in southern Africa.

Worldreader.org is a not‐for‐profit organization whose mission is to bring digital books to all in the developing world using e-readers, to go to “the world’s poorest countries where paper doesn’t reach.” Worldreader.org is currently working in rural Ghana and soon will be working in Kenya, providing thousands of children an e-reader loaded with their own personal library, consisting of age appropriate local and international literature.

Elizabeth Wood, Director of Publishing at Worldreader.org noted, “Poetry is so powerful to our kids as they come from an oral storytelling culture and I can just picture our kids reading poems aloud to their siblings and parents (many of whom are illiterate).” Our PoetryTagTime anthology will be their first poetry offering for their kids and this fits so well with our mission of putting poetry in the hands (and ears and eyes) of children who might otherwise not be exposed to it.

Once Upon a TigerAnother bit of serendipity found Janet launchings a “test” book of her own original poetry to test the Kindle waters. Look for Once Upon A Tiger: New Beginnings for Endangered Animals creation poems by Janet S. Wong with illustrations by Sladjana Vasic. This collection includes the tiger, axolotl, mountain gorilla, Sumatran rhinoceros, blue whale, leatherback sea turtle, giant panda, Asian elephant, and the polar bear, along with informational notes and related web sites. Check out her book website, OnceUponATiger.com, where you can learn more.

Remember to mark your calendar to order PoetryTagTime for only 99 cents on April 1 at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And spread the word…

About Me

Sylvia Vardell is a professor and author of the ALA bestseller POETRY ALOUD HERE, also POETRY PEOPLE, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION, and the co-editor of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY series (for K-5 and for 6-8), as well as the first digital anthologies of poetry for young people, the POETRY TAG TIME series-- all in collaboration with poet Janet Wong. Vardell is also the poetry columnist for ALA’s BOOK LINKS magazine. A frequent speaker at conferences, Vardell chaired the NCTE Poetry Award committee and has served as a consultant to the Poetry Foundation.